But in this Sunday’s Idaho Falls paper, Corey Taule (Opinions Page Editor) takes the Idaho Falls mayor to task for signing a proclamation and declaring July Title of Liberty Month in Idaho Falls.

Corey writes,

The Book of Mormon tells the story of Captain Moroni, a central figure in LDS theology, tearing off his coat and writing on it the following words: “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.”

Moroni fastened his message on the end of a pole and called it the Title of Liberty. Believers flocked to Moroni’s banner, which was eventually “hoisted upon every tower which was in all the land.”

Some think a new group of believers will flock around the Title of Liberty banner in order to save the United States Consitution. LDS writer Michael J. Snider says this would fulfill a prophecy from Mormon church founder Joseph Smith.

The modern symbol is an almost exact replica of Moroni’s coat. . . .

. . . . By issuing his proclamation, Fuhriman [our town mayor] gave the city’s official seal of approval to a group specifically rooted in one religion.

This is more than one person giving a speech. It’s an entire community’s endorsement of a symbol that unquestionably derives from one religion’s primary text.

Corey goes on in his post, “Separating religion and politics”, to encourage elected officials to “leave the official seal at home.”

I would disagree with Corey. But to my LDS friends, I have completely different foundational premises on “God, Family, Faith, Peace and Freedom.”

2. A dump truck unloaded a big pile of S.E. Idaho Snake River lava rock in my backyard. This week, I placed a 9 foot rugged cross (two thick cross beams) in the middle of the lava rock. Backyard barbecues will never be the same again.

3. In the future months ahead: to God be the Glory!

4. For only God can get the glory for such conversions as BYU professor Lynn Wilder (HT: Tim). John 6:44 is real.

“Christian historian Mark Noll remarks that the song ‘Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus’ plainly errs when it says, ‘And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.’ No, he says, the rest of the world grows clearer, not dimmer, in the light of Christ. God created matter; in Jesus, God joined it.”